You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.

Heb. 12:24

24 And [kai] to Jesus [Iesous] the mediator [mesites] of
the new [neos] covenant [diatheke], and [kai] to the blood [haima] of sprinkling [rhantismos],
that speaketh [laleo] better things [kreitton] than [para] that of Abel [Abel].KJV-Interlinear

24 and to
Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks
better than the blood of Abel. NASB

As sinful man, we do not
have any access to perfect God.As
sinful man, we do not have any means of access to perfect God.As sinful man, we do not have any ability to
discover or acquire access to God.So as
sinful man, we have a destiny of oblivion and terror beyond imagination.

God is eternal.God is perfection.God is the power that holds all things
together.

So, needless to say, if we
are going to have any future other than doom and terror, then we need some help
from someone with whom we can interact, and who can interact with God.In order to have any kind of a future we have
to have a relationship with God.Otherwise there is nothing in our future but disaster.

Lots of folks will look to
invented religions, or to their own beliefs, or to their own wisdom, in order
to gain access to God.That is where we
get all of the religions, all of the cults, all of the philosophies and
such.People invent them.And people invent them from their
imaginations, never from fact or reality.For all religions are false.

Christianity is not a
religion.It is a relationship with God,
through Jesus Christ.And that brings
us to our topic.Jesus Christ.

The name Jesus Christ comes
from the Greek.It is the same as the name
that comes from the Hebrew Joshua Messiah.These two names are the same but from their respective languages.Jesus and Joshua mean God saves.Christ and Messiah mean anointed.Therefore, the anointed savior is God, who is
the source of salvation.Salvation means
deliverance from the clutches of doom and oblivion.

We know the savior by His
Greek name Jesus Christ.He was born a
man.He is also God.Jesus Christ is the unique person of the
universe, the God/man, both God and man in one unique person.

As God, He has direct
access to God the Father.As man, we
have direct access to the person of Christ.No other religion, no other philosophy has this characteristic or
attribute within them.And of course all
religions are empty ideas with no power, no substance.

There are two
covenants.We have studied them both
extensively in this book of Hebrews.

The first covenant is
centered around sacrifices and offerings.These teach salvation, but they are not, salvation.

The second covenant is
Jesus Christ, the real savior, His work on the Cross, His Word from which we
receive our spiritual growth.

The first covenant only teaches.It is a shadow only.As we know, a shadow cannot show the color,
the texture, the detail of the thing is represents.The reality is in heaven.When we look at the shadow, we have to turn
toward the light in order to see exactly what is casting the shadow.Jesus Christ is that reality through which
the light is cast in shadow form in the Levitical sacrifices and so forth.

To worship the shadow would
be silly, but the world does many silly things.It even rejects the shadow and invents other
ideas, ideas which have no basis in truth, and many pursue them with
vigor.So much so that people can become
obsessed with their chosen beliefs, even when those beliefs are lies.

When people lack truth in
their soul, then they lack discernment and are open to all manner of lies.They can be easily fooled, and easily
convinced that any idea is really something other than what it is.This is how psychological warfare is
conducted.And, I might add, this is how
politics is often conducted as well.Politicians will try to take advantage of an ignorant public.The evidence of their success or failure can
be seen in honest polls.Polls also
show how fickle people can be, and therefore, how low (or high) the general
publics spiritual status is.

Unfortunately we live in a
day when the spiritual index (if you want to call it that) of the general
population, is in need of repair.Just
look at the news and the general beliefs surrounding the recent ShippingPort story.People are panicking over rumor and bad news
stories.Or look at the news stories
predicting civil war in Iraq,
when violence erupts in waves, as it has been doing from time to time over the
last three years.News organizations
wish for it and people believe it.But
oddly enough the violence has subsided a bit as other stories have replaced the
headlines.

A spiritually weak society
is susceptible to rumors and sensational stories.Even the stock market is driven by psychology
to some extent.

Abel made sacrifices of animals.He did this because that was what he was
properly taught.It was a part of his
worship and an expression of his faith in the promises of God.We too have our sacrifices today. We study
the Word of God.That is our worship and
from where our faith is derived.This is
the proper thing to do, as we are commanded by God, to study.

But, all of our study will
not get us one bit of spiritual growth if we do not pursue our studies in the
proper way.Satan can read the Bible and
yet he will not go to heaven.So we look
to a still higher authority within the scope of our studies.We look to Christ.

Ritual is fine when it
teaches truth.Ritual is not fine when
it becomes the substitute for truth.You
do not have to perform any ritual in order to be saved, or to advance in your
spiritual life.You merely believe in
Christ to be saved, and you merely have to study the Bible and make its
principles a part of your daily life in order to advance in your spiritual life.

Spiritual growth protects
you from the rumor mills of the world.Spiritual growth gives you discernment and helps you separate out the
truth from the lies of life.

Matt. 1:21

21 And she will bear a
Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people
from their sins. NASB

No other faith can save you
from the opinions of the world and the ultimate bad decisions that come from
those patterns of rumors.

Anyone who rejects Christ and
doctrine leaves themselves open to the many false ideas that the world promotes.Sooner or later, the constant hammering of
the world will cause you to stray into a very deep pit of failure.Your only protection against being misled, is
Bible doctrine.

Your only protection
against failure in life is Bible doctrine.

Abel offered sacrifices
which were accepted, but those sacrifices did not save him.Faith alone, saved Him and helped him to grow
up spiritually.

The world offers rituals
and beliefs in many forms.None of them
will save you nor help you succeed in your life.None of them.

Only reliance on the one
and only savior, Jesus Christ, and His Word, will bring you to the point of
seeing truth in this world and seeing you through to certain success in this
life as well as in the next.

Now is the time to post a prayer.

End Of Lesson

Study to show thyself approved (mature) unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing (studying/discerning), the Word of truth.